Police raid innocent family because of indoor garden, spied on their purchases and dug through trash

READ MORE: www.policestateusa.com/2014/harte-family-raid/LEAWOOD, KS -- Men with assault rifles raided a family who had been growing tomatoes and melons under grow-lights. The government agents thought that was enough probable cause to believe they were growing forbidden plants inside their home."It was just like on the cops TV shows," Robert Harte told The Associated Press. "It was like 'Zero Dark Thirty' ready to storm the compound."Apparently all it takes to get raided is buying hydroponics equipment and materials for indoor gardening.Dogs entered the home. The armed agents belittled the family and implied that their 13-year-old boy was growing marijuana in the home."If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn't led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?" said Adlynn Harte.Police kept the father laying on the ground for 2.5 hours and his children huddled on a couch while the SWAT team tore through their home looking for forbidden plants. SOURCES:www.kshb.com/dpp/news/region_kansas/johnson_county/false-drug-test-prompts-wrongful-raid-of-leawood-homenews.yahoo.com/kansas-couple-indoor-gardening-prompted-pot-raid-182449463.html

Police depend on field tests to give them probable cause. Police have no concern or interest in the accuracy of the field tests.If I were to develop a field test that was designed to yield positive results even when no substance is added a positive result is still obtained PD everywhere would buy them provided the price was within their budget. Police are not looking for anything other than probable cause.

Low lever police work is right. unfortunately that seems to be the only police work we get these days.....Used tea leaves testing positive for marijuana; hydrangea flowerbeds mistaken for marijuana; and as always, entire gardens of tomato plants ripped out and destroyed because 'Marijuana'

I understand how this happened. Most if not all Johnson County Kansas city police forces have imbedded DEA agents and use these Nazi style tactics to create a revenue stream for their police departments. They get you in the system on paper and charge you monthly fees and urinanalysis test charges not to mention court fees and fines associated with the charges. They also employ seizure tactics to steal property to auction off. All of this lead my family to move to the northland after harassment for years by the Lenexa Police over minor marijuana charges. Was I stupid in my younger years? Yes. Was I ever a hardened criminal drug user that deserved to be treated like one? No.

Im pretty sure they used this field test kit called narc. Its super unreliable. Theres news stories about people who got arrested because their cotton candy and fiber pilla shows positive on the kit but were negative in a real lab

And let me guess NOTHING AT ALL happened to the cops that did that shit?? There needs to be laws put in place for when shit like this happens the cops involved are held responsible. This way cops will think twice bout doing stupid shit like this. Cuz as it is now they know they will get away with it. Also with how they ransacked that house the cops should be made to go back in and fix everything n put everything the fuck back. Cuz if cops were held responsible then you know they aint gonna do even half the shit they do

"The April 20, 2012, raid would not furnish JCSO with the desired arrests and publicity (a news conference had already been planned for the afternoon.) But it would cause considerable embarrassment. Not only were the Hartes upstanding citizens with clean records, *they were also both former Central Intelligence Agency officers*. And they were not weed growers. Rather, the quick-trigger suspicion of law enforcement had snagged on - it would later turn out - tea leaves and a struggling tomato plant."So basically, the police wanted to use former federal agents with no criminal history and flimsy evidence to make themselves look good. They royally F'ed up." The events leading to the raid began a year earlier, according to court documents. Starting in 1997, Sgt. James Wingo of the Missouri State Highway Patrol started pulling surveillance shifts in the parking lots of hydroponic garden stores around the state. The project's logic, as Wingo explained in a 2011 letter to other law enforcement agencies, was that the stores "sell items that are consistently found in indoor marijuana growing operations." As customers came and went, Wingo would note their license plate information and enter names into a database."Yeah, the problem here is that buying something that can be used to grow drugs is not in and of itself a crime. It's not even sufficient for probable cause to launch a serious investigation. On the contrary, creating a government registry of all persons who shop at a particular legal business is both a violation of privacy laws and can expose them to lawsuit by the store owner who's business will be affected by this.Speaking for MYSELF, I think I would be afraid to visit any gardening related businesses in Kansas city area next time I'm in the area. The risk of police retaliation is too great."The raid turned up no marijuana. Before leaving the Harte house, police would only say the family had been targeted and surveilled because marijuana "seeds and stems" had been found on the property. The cops also suggested the couple's son was smoking pot, and told the Hartes to take him to a pediatrician for a drug test."They find nothing, and have the audacity to order the parents to have their kid drug tested...

We need to put a stop to field testing. Really, it's far too easy to misinterpret a negative as a positive. Beyond that, simply purchasing gardening supplies should not in and of itself be sufficient to waste public resource on a major investigation to begin with. This is just a waste.

They used to do this BS in my city. Police would hide across the street from the grow shop and take down plate numbers. Then they take your trash on trash day every week, until they find some stems or something, then they get a warrant and raid your house.

+Grant Says Hi how is it their fault? It all started from a state trooper being nosy at a garden store. What do you know about ethics with police departments? We take an oath and this was clearly bs. The fact you think the police did nothing wrong here actually worries me quite a bit to the point where either you're trolling or you're just to dumb and naive to understand the rights every american has.

+Grant Says Hi yea my department isn't shady like them. They illegally raided that poor family and broke many of their rights. I'd never in my life break my oath to serve and protect the people, especially upholding the constitution and what it stands for. How are they protecting their community by doing that to an innocent family lying about finding weed in their trash without sending it to a lab and I'd put money on it they were just lying thinking they would look good, get a bonus, and promotion if they got lucky and there was actual weed in the house. They're corrupt.

More lives disrupted because of this country stupid drug laws,Drugs at'n hurting most of these people , the law is hurting themPutting them in jail for smoking a little pot, A law that is only on the books so the Pharmaceutical company's can make more money.